Hammer, Jim-Bean, Guppy, and Adams entered. It was clear that Underhill had orders to let the agents go first.

All walls on the ground level have been reinforced with a sort of spray epoxy. The interior walls on the ground floor were removed, leaving a large, open area about sixty feet long by thirty feet wide. Within, a large number of strange instruments were spread about in disarray. The majority of the devices was too alien to be understood; lights, glows, pulsing bellows, and all sorts of bizarre apparatuses that had a weirdly fungal, biological look to them.

There was a large, enclosed vat with a hole on rent in its side, as if it were struck by a powerful force. Also scattered about the vat were …